A young Yeovil man who admitted having nearly 200 images and films of children being sexually abused had been involved with the Scout Association, the organisation has confirmed.

Lewis Mitchell, 20, of Seaton Road, admitted the charges at Somerset Magistrates court in Yeovil and will be sentenced later at Taunton Crown Court to be sentenced.

EDITOR'S NOTE: We would like to make clear that the defendant should not be confused with another Lewis Mitchell, 22, of a different address and who is an employee at Yeovil Audi.

A spokeswoman for the Scout Association said that Mitchell will never be allowed to volunteer with the organisation again.

A statement said: “The Scout Association is aware of the court proceedings involving Mitchell and has co-operated fully with the statutory agencies throughout this investigation.

"Mitchell was suspended from all involvement with the Scout Movement as soon as we were made aware of the investigation.

"Mitchell will never be allowed to volunteer with us again.

"The Scout Association carries out stringent vetting of all adults who work with young people and requires them to work to a strict code of practice outlined in the Young People First Code of Practice.”

What happened in court?

He pleaded guilty to a charge that between December 15, 2016 and June 9, 2017 at Yeovil he made 11 indecent images and 19 movies of a child in the most serious Category A.

He also admitted making eight images and 10 movies in Category B and a further 127 images and three movies in Category C.

Prosecutor Julyan Stephens said that the police went to the defendant’s home address in August last year and carried out a search and he handed over a mobile phone.

“The device was analysed and found to contain indecent images and movies of children in all categories of seriousness from A to C which comprised a total of 146 images and 32 movies,” he said.

“Of these, 24 were deemed to be immediately accessible to any user of the device while the rest would have to be recovered using special software.”

He added that Mitchell had no previous convictions for any offences and was of previous good character.

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Defending solicitor Joseph Wright said that the crown court would seem to be the appropriate venue for sentence due to the serious nature of the case.

The magistrates refused to accept jurisdiction saying that they did not feel their powers of punishment were sufficient in the case.

They ordered the defendant to be committed to the crown court at Taunton to be sentenced and ordered him to appear there on March 31.

In the meantime they requested that the Probation Service should prepare a pre-sentence report and released Mitchell on unconditional bail.

They also ordered him to sign onto the national Sex Offenders Register within three days of the court hearing where he will have to abide by specified notification requirements for a period of time that will be determined by the sentencing judge.

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